My heart goes out to the people of Maui. Living in northern California, I can relate. It’s devastating. Now comes the shock and the tears. But after? After comes the rebuilding and the refreshing. Yes, it takes awhile. Yes, much is lost forever. But you will be back. You will have sunsets, and the beach, and the ocean. The plants come back. The animals come back. Life goes back to “normal.” There is a future. Hang in there, Maui. You’ve taken a hell of a punch, but you will get back up…

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Ever since ‘Indictment 3 – the DC Caper,’ the MAGA attorneys have been out in force offering up a variety of excus…”explanations” as to why the case is weak or downright wrong. So far, I’ve tracked:
“Huh-uh!” (This one is a bit…non-specific…)
“Free Speech” (Speech necessary to commit crimes isn’t protected by the Constitution…)
“These ‘asks’ were aspirational.” (That one has a ring of truth. Trump aspired to stay President even after he lost the election…)
“Politically motivated.” (Investigating and charging crimes is not political. That’s just criminal prosecution.)
There will be others, I’m sure…

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Ohio voted on a sudden motion to eliminate majority rule in their state. That’s not hyperbole. Republicans there wanted to raise the threshold to change their state constitution from a simple majority to 60%. Why? There is a movement afoot in Ohio to enshrine reproductive choice into the state’s constitution. Ever since Dobbs, people have been rising up to regain control over their bodies. (Weird…) Republicans DO NOT WANT YOU to have the right to choose. They’ll do it for you.

Their problem? If they leave the process to a simple majority, they’ll likely lose, and they know it – so they wanted to change the rules to make it harder to stop their over-reach. More of the “Republican Freedumb” they’re always on about. “You have the freedumb to do as you’re told!” Never vote Republican…

Happy update: Ohioans rejected the measure and leave the threshold to amend the state constitution at a simple majority. You know, like democracy should be…

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Loose Cannon made a “ruling.” She’s challenging Jack Smith to explain why he needs an out-of-state Grand Jury to keep investigating Trump’s many, many…okay, many crimes. She also struck down two sealed motions filed by Jack Smith. The thing is, in her order, she included a “hint.” She suggested that nothing in her order prevented Trump’s team from filing a motion to dismiss. Now, why would a judge try to lead defense counsel to where they “might want to go.”

Smith needs to move for her recusal because Cannon is moving toward an outright, summary dismissal. What’s THAT called? Jurist nullification?

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Ah, the cons. Can’t please them by giving them their way. They’re trying to create some form of artificial “balance” between the vast mountain of charges facing defendant Trump and the comparative petite pile of problems facing Hunter Biden. Sexual predator Trump has a Special Counsel so they’ve been crying about needing a Special Counsel for Biden, too. So? Merrick Garland gave them one. Garland named Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss to the post.

It makes sense. Weiss has been the guy investigating Biden for awhile now so he’s already up to speed on the case. Also, it’s not like they chose Jill Biden to run the thing. Weiss was appointed by…Trump. (Sidebar: isn’t it sad how we have to check to see who appointed whom to try to make an estimate as to their qualifications and/or political bias? I preferred Better America, where appointees were selected by qualification first…) In typical GOP fashion, they politely celebrated their victory in getting what they wanted, then moved on to the next order of business.

Ha-ha, of course they didn’t. See, they don’t really care. Their actual goal, in ALL things, is to be contrarian – the third “con” in my “con” shorthand (CONservative, CON man, CONtrarian…) So? That’s what they did. Suddenly, the appointed Special Counsel is a “cover-up” and THIS Trump-appointed Special Counsel simply cannot be trusted. They turned getting their way into an attempted attack on Joe Biden. It’s stupid but it’s all they’ve got left in that quiver.